cold war again 4563
Not all of us were city slickers, Eugene. Watching the sky was part of our way of life. Anything unusual had to be noted and included in the next day's and longrange planning. Trust me...
Note that this part of this thread started when Eugene responded to your claim Actually, some...
Only after some physicist told them what part of the sky to view at some specific time.
Trust me. My old man was in the American Legion. I know their reaction.
From a film (fiction but has the point):
Why, why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals. And you know it. 1500 years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the Center of the Universe. 500 year ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat. 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet; imagine what you will know tomorrow.
I did NOT say the public didn't panic. The panic created NASA, DARPA, the NSF, and a slew of education initiatives (new math, physics, cryptology, photointerpretation, etc.)
ours is a civilian run military.
We have a system of checks and balances.
Is now because of it. But it was dependent on the Soviets making the first move. Our lawyers were frozen in tehri tracks.
Holocost deniers, flat earthers, Moon landing deniers, all exist. The problem starts with the erosion of details. Politicing, brinksmenship, and anything which did not leave physical scars will fade with time. It's a human psychological property of forgetting. Some stuff exists in places like the National Archives.
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